Anglers in the Great Lakes have complained for years thatdouble-crested cormorants are destroying some adult fish populations.Now, new research suggests those long-held suspicions may be right. TheGreat Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:
Transcript
Anglers in the Great Lakes have complained for years
that double crested cormorants are destroying some
adult fish populations.
Now, new research suggests those long-held suspicions
may be right.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly
reports.
Researchers have found double-crested cormorants are
eating surprisingly large walleye and smallmouth bass
– between six and 14 inches long.
Connie Adams is a biologist at the Cornell Field
Station on Oneida Lake in New York.
She studied the cormorants’ diet and discovered they
feast on fish that are just below the legal limit for
anglers.
“They are taking a fairly substantial amount of
fish that would have been recruited into the adult
population if the cormorants hadn’t preyed on them.”
Similar findings have been reported on Lake Ontario
and Lake Erie.
That’s led fishermen to call for a hunting season on
cormorants.
But biologists like Adams say they first want to see
if less invasive measures, like destroying nests, will
have a large enough effect.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly.